Pages

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Despite the especially lovely day, I spent most of the day inside for a DC Audubon organizational meeting. Luckily for me, and the rest of us, the meeting was at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. DC Audubon has had a special relationship with this park for a long time and runs an annual field trip in the gardens. So there was a short opportunity for birdwatching built into the schedule.

I saw my life broad-winged hawk this morning, thanks to one member who pointed it out to the group. Now that I have seen one, I think that the main thing holding me back from recognizing one previously was that I was probably misidentifying juvenile broad-wingeds with very light red-tailed hawks. That may explain why I had not seen this rather common migrant.

The river trail held a collection of woodpeckers and sparrows, plus a lone osprey dining on a fish. The marsh held several sandpiper species: greater and lesser yellowlegs and Wilson's snipe. The snipe in particular gave great looks, as they were sitting out in the open on a mud flat. In addition there was a group of green-winged teal swimming near the Anacostia inlet. Wood ducks were flying back and forth from one area of the gardens to another.